Harrisburg put Aberdeen Central on the defensive Tuesday evening in a battle of two of the top Class AA girls’ soccer teams in the state.

The top-rated Tigers edged the third-rated Golden Eagles 1-0 in an Eastern South Dakota Conference matchup between a pair of unbeaten teams at Brownell Activities Complex.

“We were doing things a little bit too defensively. We talked about that at halftime, how we need to rotate and fill,” said Central coach Kendra Hanley. “It didn’t quite execute as what we wanted it to, so going forward we’re still going to go over on how to improve that and fix that, so we can stay attacking oriented like we have been.”

Central had some chances in the first half, but couldn’t quite put one in the Harrisburg net. The Golden Eagles hit the post on one attempt and also bounced one off the cross bar.

The Tigers also had numerous chances, hitting a post and cross bar, but did convert on a crucial opportunity for the game’s only goal in the 53rd minute when Lily Churchill managed to put a ball just out of the reach of Central goalkeeper Ava Beck.

“This was definitely one of our harder games of the year. I feel like most of the saves that I had were not shots, they were more like crosses and we did a good job of getting those out,” Beck said. “They had a couple of really good shots, one of them did go in, but we did a good job of filling when we needed to and clearing.”

Beck had seven saves in the contest and kept the Golden Eagles within striking distance all game long.

“We’re proud of her. She had a stellar game,” Hanley said. “We know how great she is. This game gave everybody else the opportunity to see how great she is. We see it all the time in practice.”

Beck said trying to gauge balls coming at her can be a challenge in windy conditions, like the ones present during the contest.

“A lot of times when it’s in the air, you can’t tell how fast it’s coming or if I need to step or if it’s the defender’s job,” Beck said, “so you kind of just have to come up and hope for the best.”

Central did its best to get on the board, led by the all-out play of sophomore Jaxi Lozenski, whose speed and nifty ball handling often allows to penetrate opposing defenses.

Lozenski just missed beating the Harrisburg goalkeeper to a ball during the second half.

“It just gets the adrenaline going and makes me want to go and chase the ball more,” Lozenski said of the play.

Lozenski noted that the Golden Eagles played Harrisburg tougher than they have in past games.

“Going into the game playing Harrisburg, it’s always kind of intimidating playing them, because they’re so good, so I guess we were kind of a little laid off than we usually are,” Lozenski said, “but I feel like over the game we kind of developed more and got better as it went on.”

The Golden Eagles came away from the contest with confidence despite suffering their first setback of the season.

“It kind of keeps our heads up,” Lozenski said, “and our next game if we play them again, we’ll be more ready and prepared to play them.”

Hanley was pleased with the way her players conducted themselves against the four-time defending state champion Tigers.

“They’re a great team,” Hanley said, “and I was very proud of our girls and how we were a very composed team and we acted as I wanted us to.”

Hanley believes the team can use the hard-fought loss as a learning moment and the players were already taking that to heart following the game.

“We can learn a lot from this game,” Beck said. “We figured out how they play this year and we can take that going into playoffs and just other games in general.”

Lozenski said the tight outcome shows that the Golden Eagles are developing as a team.

“I just think this was a good game,” Lozenski said, “and it kind of showed that we’re progressing and getting better as we go on.”

Central, 7-1 on the season, heads to Brookings for another ESD game on Thursday.

Hanley said there were positive moments to build on from the setback against Harrisburg.

“We liked what we saw, but more so, we liked what we can learn from and all of the girls recognize that,” Hanley said, “and they’re ready to get back to practice, because they want to know how they can improve and get better. That’s the exciting piece.”

Harrisburg 0 1 – 1

Aberdeen Central 0 0 – 0

First Half: no scoring.

Second Half: 1, H, Lily Churchill, 53rd minute.

Shots: Harrisburg 17; Aberdeen Central 10

Goalies: Harrisburg, Regan Schelske (1 save); Aberdeen Central, Ava Beck (7 saves).